Saturday, May 24, 2014

Reader Comments and Retorts

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There will be no OMNICHATTER games listing today, as the Braves inevitably lose on days I come do that and win on days I don't, and I want wins more than I love you. Except for Anaheim Boy of Angels In The Outfield. I love that guy so much. But in a manly, bro-hug, hey did you just casually swipe my ass on the release?! sort of way. Sigh. He's so dreamy!

Anthony Gose looks completely different at the plate this year than previous appearances.
It's probably SSS, but his BB/K ratio is significantly better (even in AAA).
If he can hit even moderately, then there is a decent chance the Jays might try to deal Rasmus at the deadline for whatever piece they think they need (if they are in it).

Who would be your pick for winning the AL East right now? For me, the two best teams are at the bottom, and I'm not sure they're that much better than the others to negate the few games they'd have to make up on the top teams. I suppose if I had a gun to my head I might pick the Orioles?

Boston is not winning the AL East. The Rays might turn things around and get out of the cellar, but the Sox won't. This is just a bad team.

There isn't a team in the AL East, that if they won the division, would be a surprise to me. All the teams are flawed, all are pretty good and I think an argument can be made that they all have the management to succeed if they are competitive in late July. (maybe not Baltimore)

Really? The announcers said that the consensus on the Cardinals coaching staff is that Jaime Garcia has the best stuff. I just don't see it. He's good, but he's the type of guy that will never be a teams projected ace going into a season. He's a solidly good pitcher who can have a game or two of excellence, but not the guy that other teams are going to focus on or ever say "Glad we missed him this series."

I know making fun of announcers is so easy...but Garcia just got the first out of the second inning... "So far Garcia has looked really sharp, outside of a two out double to Phillips in the first, he has been getting them out." HE'S FACED FIVE BATTERS SO FAR.....

For the record Garcia hasn't looked sharp, he's looked good (especially movement on his ball) but not particularly sharp, the Reds have been a little over aggressive and that has helped out, but he's still having location issues.

I still hate in game interviews...but Homer Bailey was pretty frank in his and it wasn't completely uninteresting. He criticized Cingrani's inability to go deep into the game ("It's no big secret") talked about the rivalry saying there is no true hate between the teams, but beating the Cardinals does feel better than some other opponents (even with Kapler trying to push his buttons to say he hates them, like Kapler hated the Yankees) etc....

Thom Brennaman is surprised at how much playing time that Jay has lost this year. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one saying that. I can't remember though, is Brennaman one of the idiot announcers or is he competent?

That might be the most ridiculous catch I've ever seen, courtesy of Alex Gordon. Steps on the outfield wall's padding to vault himself over the fence to rob a home run from Pujols, then bobbles it as it hits his cap, face, shoulder, glove, hand, before catching it while sitting on his butt. This is part of my dislike of instant replay. Just call it the most brilliant catch of the year and move on. Instead, a several-minute delay to try to determine if the ball ever grazed the wall in the process of Gordon's juggling catch.

Yikes, Matheny bringing in Carlos Martinez with the tying runs on base... this will not end well.

I looked at his splits this year, and in low-leverage situations batters are only 1-for-20 against him... in all other situations, he's been hit hard.

Not sure what this just qualified as, since he created the high leverage this time, but he managed to get out of it. Again the Reds batters helped him out though. Have the Reds always been this aggressive? I know that Phillips is and a few others, but figured that Bruce and Votto helped even it out, but without Votto, have they gotten more aggressive as a team?

Because Kole Calhoun just got back from his DL stint, Hamilton's not off the DL yet, and Ibañez is hitting .154/.275/.282. Normally Calhoun would be batting first, Hamilton 4th, and Kendrick 5th instead of leading off. (The Angels have been scoring bunches despite the terrible individual numbers by some of thee guys. )

I went to the Brewers @ Marlins game tonight with some friends. We were all puzzled in the 6th inning when this happened:

With runners at first and second and two outs, Reynolds singled to left. Rather than throw home, where he knew he had no play, Yelich threw to third, where McGehee tagged Gomez out.

That occurred before Braun -- the lead runner -- crossed home plate, meaning the run did not count and the score remained 1-0 in Miami's favor. Manager Ron Roenicke came out to challenge the play. After a review of 40 seconds, the call was confirmed by home-plate umpire Brian O'Nora.

Three separate times home plate ump O'Nora emphatically waved his arms outward making what we took to mean a safe call while looking up at the press box and another time at the Brewers' dugout. On top of that I'm pretty sure they sent Gomez back to 2B before Roenicke even came out to challenge. All in all a very confusing sequence of events for us in the stands; even the explanation posted on the big screen a short while later omitted key information.

It took the New York Giants five seasons to go from first to last to first again, with stops at second and fourth along the way. What would be really amazing would be for the Red Sox to go from last to first to last in three seasons without even pausing for breath.

As a Red Sox fan, this is interesting to watch because last year was one of the all-time flukes, where absolutely everything went right -- several players had seasons at the top of their expected range, and then they won all three playoff rounds -- for no good reason. And yet fans believed that they really were that good.

Now, much is going wrong.

Of course, it's early yet. But I had them pegged for something like 85-88 wins, not 90+.

What's really astounding is the production they've gotten from LF, 1B and DH, which figure to be key offensive positions for most AL teams. The players getting the majority of ABs in those positions have OPS+ of 61, 48, 62, 76, 51 and 81, with Chris Carter and his 185/275/384 being the 81.

I don't stalk you, I'm in game chatter all the time. That's why I remember, because it happened multiple times: myself or someone would say how well the Sox were doing last year and you'd avalanche posts on why they'd crash and burn, and that we should all believe you because you predicted disaster in 2012. Between that and all the cursing and insults, they were pretty memorable posts.

You define the parameters of 'almost all last season', prove it, and Ill throw $1,000 to your favorite charity. You've got when I said, "The Sox won't make the playoffs if they can't take 2 from SF and one from the Dodgers" around last August. Now you prove 'almost all last season'....and $1,000 goes to any charity you want.

If not...STFU about it. It's tiresome that I can't humorously criticize my team, and the height of hilarity that the INVENTOR of the meme "How will XXX lose today" is lecturing me about fatalism.

Dale, you do seem to show pessimism at every turn. I mean, the 100-loss thing above is a prime example. There's no way this team is losing 100 games. Evaluating a team based off of a 9-game losing streak is seriously flawed analysis.

(And their biggest weakness is their outfield, not their starting pitching.)

You gotta admit, I did kind of nail it with the "fatalism + insults and cursing" deal. Personally, I don't care about the criticisms of one's own team — nobody does it more than me here, or more vehemently — it's the angry lashing out at other posters that I've got a problem with. It's not like this is some OT deal where we're talking about politics or personal stuff. It's baseball, and I don't see why it's gotta get nasty.

(Has calmed down) I just don't like being immediately attacked after not making a peep for 40+ games. I actually just went over a lot of my posts. A lot of them were surprisingly upbeat. I agreed with the groupthink last June that the team was a shoo-in for the playoffs. (Yes, I did stumble in August)

I insanely was saying I was optimistic about the moves the Sox made in March, 2013. Seriously, I don't know why I said that. I thought I was very down on them in March.

I THINK you're mixing pessismism with my going bugfuck nuts on some moves like the relievers for Lowrie and Reddick, benching Nava for Gomes in the playoffs, just up and giving Youkilis away and paying for him to leave for Lillibridge. I wasn't happy at all about Iglesias for Peavy. Apparently all three teams lost that trade. Just because I'm horribly pessimistic about Andrew Bailey, doesn't mean I'm pessimistic about the team.

But pessimism has nothing to do with the fact that they have 4 platoon OFers and one that can't hit lefties or righties. They have 2 starters that still know how to pitch. Napoli WILL strike out some 150 times if he gets enough ABs. Their catchers are ****ing David Ross and AJP. At least the BP is good.